Trick or Treat
by Stratagem
Summary: It's Halloween at the Mutant Underground HQ, and John, Lorna, and Marcos are trying to make the best of it for the kids.


Disclaimer: I don't own The Gifted!

A/N: A short little Halloween thing! Takes place about a year before The Gifted.

* * *

 **Trick or Treat**

"Lorna, I thought we agreed on a couple bags of candy."

"This is a couple."

"Yeah, plus about a dozen more. What did you and Marcos do, hold up a candy store?"

"My sweet tooth told me to do it."

John smirked as Sage and Lorna argued about the pile of candy on the table. Marcos and Lorna must have taken more money out of the stash than they were supposed to, but John wasn't going to fuss about it, not when it was already done. Honestly, this was way more than they needed for their little plan, but the kids were going to be ecstatic.

While Sage grumbled about funds and Lorna snarked, John started opening bags and sorting through the candy. Chocolate here, stuff with peanut butter over there because Evelyn was allergic, lollipops for Taj, all the gummy things to the side because Riley would want them even if she never said it. After tonight, they were going to have to find a mutant dentist for all these potential cavities.

"Did you get costumes, too?" Sage asked, hands on her hips.

"Of course," Marcos said. He was over on the couch, pulling Goodwill clothes and little Dollar Tree accessories out of plastic bags. "What's Halloween without costumes?"

Sage cut a look at John. "We're going to go broke over a commercial holiday, just so you know."

"We'll tighten up somewhere else," John said, giving her a small smile. He picked up a Twix, her favorite, and handed it to her. "It's going to be okay, Sage."

The brilliant mutant snagged the candy bar and ripped into it, popping it into her mouth like a chocolate cigar. "All right, but I get to pass out the good stuff. Don't give me the Jolly Ranchers."

"What do you have against Jolly Ranchers?" Lorna called after to her as Sage headed out of the room. Grinning, she turned toward John and Marcos, leaning forward with her hands on the table. "Do the kids know yet?"

"I think they've got an idea," Marcos said. He glanced toward the other door, and there was a swish of dark hair and clawed fingers disappearing from the doorway.

There were more kids than usual in the HQ at the moment, which had prompted this whole Halloween thing. Lately Sentinel Services seemed to have been targeting families who had noticeably mutant kids, so a lot of the Underground's work recently involved rescuing children. There were orphans and runaways, as well as a few kids who had a relative or someone with them.

Throwing a Halloween party was Lorna and Marcos' idea, a way to give the kids a semblance of something normal, and John had gotten on board. This was the kind of thing that the kids missed out on when they were on the run.

John didn't look up as Lorna looped a bandanna around his head, covering his eyes for a minute. She tied it tight, and he had to push it up and out of his eyes. "Should I even ask?"

"You're going as a pirate," she said, ruffling his hair before situating the bandanna. "We even got you an eye patch."

"It's cheap, so it's likely to poke you in the eye and blind you," Marcos said. He tossed the piece of plastic at John, who snagged it out of the air.

"And now you have to talk like a pirate the rest of the day," Lorna said.

John rolled his eyes. "I see, that was your grand master plan, right?"

"That wasn't very pirate-like, John," Marcos said, his tone playfully scolding. "Try adding an 'argh' or an 'aye aye' in there."

John lifted an eyebrow and then lobbed a piece of candy at Marcos, pinging it gently off his forehead. "Why don't you be the pirate?"

"Because you're wearing the bandanna."

The three of them finished sorting candy and put it into a random assortment of containers before they divided up the costumes and went to find the kids. John headed to the courtyard at the back of HQ and whistled loudly. The kids knew they weren't supposed to wander far from the old bank, so they raced out of the woods where they had been playing and toward John. There were five of them there in the courtyard, either mutants themselves or kids of mutants who would probably turn out to be the same.

"Are we really doing Halloween?" one of the kids, Evelyn, asked. She had shimmery, iridescent patches on her skin and all-blue eyes, like a cloudless summer sky. Grinning, she grabbed a feather boa from the basket of clothes and costume pieces John had set on the ground. "Like, a real one?"

"Sort of," John said. He picked up a big plastic necklace from the bag and handed it to her. "You'll still get a lot of candy, how's that?"

"I wanna jawbreaker," said a boy, his hair a spikey blue mess. He was pulling on a long, plaid shirt. "Can I be a zombie?"

"Yeah, Sonia said she would do face paint," John said, "She's upstairs but finish getting your costume first." He looked around as the kids picked through the bags. "Hey, where's Riley?" The four-year-old had been at the HQ for a couple months already, but she sometimes had trouble connecting with the other kids. She was a little shy still, though at least she talked more than she used to. It was taking time but she was slowly healing.

"In the library," Evelyn said. She was now all decked out in the boa, sunglasses, and the necklace John had given her. "With Ms. Colette."

"Thanks." John grabbed the small satchel he had set aside just for Riley and went back inside. People were getting into place for the Halloween party, grabbing the candy containers and setting up last minute games with whatever they could find. Maybe it wasn't conventional, but at least the kids would have a good time.

When he stepped into the library, he didn't automatically see Riley or Colette, but his senses quickly pointed him to a small, tented reading corner. There was a sheet over one corner of the room, with old white Christmas lights and pillows all tucked into the tent. Colette was sitting beside the tent, a book spread open in her hands, and he could see the tiny missing four-year-old curled up on the pallet in the tent, her wings curled around her.

When John met Colette's eyes, she peeked over at Riley. "She's been out for almost an hour."

"No nightmares?" John asked softly. He walked over and sat down across from Colette, right at the opening to the tent.

"Only one, but she quieted down quickly," Colette replied.

John smiled. Hey, that was sort of an improvement. Riley hadn't slept through an entire night since they had brought her to HQ. Most nights, she would be awake an hour after getting tucked in or he would find her sleepwalking around HQ.

Setting the bag down in front of the tent, he patted Colette's leg and then stood up. "I have to go help get ready, but can you give that to her when she wakes up?"

"Sure," Colette said, nodding.

A half hour later, everything was ready for HQ's very first Halloween party. Half of the adults and teens manned hastily created game stations while others scattered themselves around HQ to pass out candy. John was going to help pass out candy, but once the kids swarmed in, he handed his spot off to one of the teens and focused on crowd control. Not that they had _that_ many kids, but when the kids could float candy, jump five feet straight up, or fly, well, it became a little more chaotic.

He was pulling Adam off of a banister when he noticed Marcos walking down the stairs, Riley clinging to him like a lifeline. The little girl's dark eyes were huge as she stared at the other kids.

"I don't think she's ever done Halloween," Marcos told John. That made sense, considering her past. Riley hid her face in Marcos' shoulder as he got closer to John.

Automatically, John set Adam down, sending him back to the others. He reached up and took off the eye patch before gently scratching at Riley's back. "Hey, kiddo. It's just me."

Riley slowly peeked at him and then tilted her head to the side. Tentatively, she reached out and touched his eyebrow over the eye he had been wearing the patch over. John smiled. "I like your costume."

She smiled back and touched the bright blue tutu with the white stars. She had a tiara on too, one with Wonder Woman's iconic red star on it.

"Do you want John to go with you to get all the candy?" Marcos asked.

When Riley nodded, Marcos handed her over to John and then slapped a hand against John's shoulder. "I'll take over kiddy wrangling."

"Aye aye," John said with the most serious, straight face he could muster. At least until Marcos started laughing, which got him to join in too.


End file.
